In an effort to streamline their processing of a half-million short sales, Bank of America has announced that all short sales must now be processed through the Equator online transaction manager regardless of the file’s proximity to approval. Effective March 1, 2010, all properties secured by a Bank of America loan must be uploaded electronically. No existing short sale reviews will be grandfathered in. All files, regardless of the stage, will have to be resubmitted and assigned to a new negotiator.
Historically, Equator is a software platform which has been used to track matters related to depressed properties. Traditionally, asset managers and realtors use Equator to list and sell REO properties. Other vendors such as title companies and eviction attorneys use it to assist in relocating the occupants of REO properties.
Bank of America believes that Equator will “streamline” and expedite short sale negotiations by uploading the necessary documents to save time. However, the uploading process takes as much time, on average, as faxing. More importantly, it still takes several weeks for Bank of America to open the file and assign a negotiator.
What this will mean for many of our clients is that the entire short sale package must be resubmitted through the Equator system and the timeframes for processing will have to start over. Due to the particularity of the program, Black & LoBello may be forced to request additional or supplemental documentation from all parties involved in the transaction. Additionally, the short seller is now required to obtain login information before any financial data can be uploaded to the system. Once you have obtained your login information, please forward the login, temporary password, and security question to your processor so that we may make the proper submissions on your behalf.
Black & LoBello apologizes in advance for the inconveniences Bank of America’s decision will cause our clients.
Tisha Black Chernine, Esq.
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Excellent blog! My partner and i truly liked the post – comprehensible and to the point, exactly what my partner and i like
excellent information. I was not aware that BOA made that change. I hope this software expedite the process so when April 5 comes they will be ready to move the approvals of the new government HAFA Short Sale Program.
This New change from BOA is a living JOKE!! We’ve been trudging through the short sale B.S. for over 2 years now, and Countrywide/BOA has done little to NOTHING to train their people, help the sellers or even have a website that is easy to negotiate, Oh yes, we can’t even login our info and password succesfully or get a LIVE person on the phone to assist. We have now our seventh–yes that’s ***7th*** offer on our home for a short sale in one year (which this one is CASH!!) and now they tell me my realtor can’t even submit the offer without us doing somekind of mundane “task” online!?!! This protocol is insane. . . . .
I just found out that there was a seminar here in Las VEgas to learn about Equator. Will you be having another one and if so, where and when.
Thank you
Ruth Guarnaccia
Realty One Group (702) 612-6592
Equator is buggy and severely lacking feature wise. I am a buyer on a potential short sale and it has not streamlined the process at all.
One example…. I was told that I was on the very last step of the process before the file was to be turned over to the bank for approval and all of my uploaded docs just disappeared. The rep told me that it was due to a computer glitch and that it was commonplace.
I had to upload all of the docs and start over. What a nightmare.